Room rental rates are escalating day after day, as Hanoi receives more and more students who will take university entrance exams in early July

Room rental rates are escalating day after day, as Hanoi receives more and more students who will take university entrance exams in early July.

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The first university entrance exam will begin on July 4, while the second exam will begin on July 9. Hopeful students are now flocking to Hanoi to find a place to stay during their exams. Like previous years, rent prices have risen with the sharp increase in the demand.

Tens of thousands of students will sit university entrance exams in Hanoi and each is chaperoned by a relative. Therefore, the demand for accommodations in Hanoi right now is very high.

If the students have relatives in Hanoi, they can stay with them. Those who do not must rent rooms at exorbitant rates. Most parents bring their children to popular rooms, while well-off families take their children to high-end guest houses, where their children can enjoy fresh air and a quiet setting to study.

Since there more students than rooms, however, rates have been increasing daily. Rent is double normal days at not only rooms and guest houses near big universities, but at guest houses along Hoang Quoc Viet, Nguyen Chi Thanh, Lang and Nguyen Ngoc Vu streets.

On normal days, a 20 square meter guest house room for two with air conditioning rents for 250,000-300,000 dong per night. Now the price has jumped to 500,000-600,000 dong.

“I began looking for rooms to rent one week ago. Finally, I found a small room on Nguyen Ngoc Vu street to rent at 300,000 dong per day,” revealed Mai Linh, who brought her nephew to Hanoi for exams.

“After the first exam, he (the nephew) will stay in Hanoi to sit a second exam on July 9. Therefore, I had to look for a room in Tay Ho district, because I want a room near the exam site,” she added. “All the landlords there set rates at 600,000 dong per day, and, after negotiations, I rented a room for 400,000 dong.”

According to Ngoc Phuong, a guest house owner, 400,000 dong per day is a very ‘soft’ rate, because rents may rise further in the coming days as even more students arrive. “If you are slow in renting rooms, then you will not be able to rent any room, even at a high rate,” Phuong cautioned.

In Cau Giay, Long Bien, Thanh Xuan districts and Co Nhue area, many students must share rooms with many other people. A student, who stays in a room for four people, for instance, must pay 80,000-150,000 per day. During regular times, such a room rents for only one million dong per month.

There is a lamp and ceiling fan in every room. If students need more electric fans, they must pay additional fees for the electricity.

While high rental rates are plaguing students, this is a golden opportunity for Hanoians to earn money. Hai, who lives on Nguyen Van Cu Road in Gia Lam area, has leased two rooms that are 14-18 square metres each. She can earn several million dong, enough to pay her children’s school tuition.

Source: Thoi bao Kinh te Vietnam